Minggu, 18 September 2011

Your last show in Jakarta was seven years ago. Do you have a good excuse for not playing in this part of the world sooner? The only excuse I have is being in the studio, making music and playing in cities in other parts of the world where they are also very eager to have us. But you know, that’s probably a not very good excuse [laughs].

After the launch of the new album, have you been fully occupied with touring, or have you also been preparing new material for your next album?We’re always writing. Definitely everybody has ideas all the time, although the focus of our energy has been on supporting the records and performing the songs in many parts of the world.

Is there any chance you’re going to give a sample of your new material at one of your concerts?There’s always a chance, but it’s a very slim chance. Count all the songs on ‘A Thousand Suns’ — that’s a lot of new music to play on our Asia tour.

So what else can we expect from your upcoming show?We will be playing songs from ‘Midnight,’ ‘Hybrid Theory,’ ‘Meteora,’ most likely. It’s something for all ages. We always play what is exciting for us and also for anyone who comes to multiple nights. They usually tend to get a little bit of a different experience each time. You can follow us all around Asia like we’re the Grateful Dead [laughs].

So is that your inspiration?[The Grateful Dead] is the most famous band that made every show different, and people would follow them around. They would be the best example of improvisation, changing the show each night. We definitely love playing live and we take [it] seriously. When we’re done making records, we really put all our energy into being the best live band.

Who calls the shots on which songs to play?We are definitely an artistic democracy. The best idea is usually the winner.

How do you come up with new music?What’s fun about being in the band is that we’ve taken the creative path to really evolve our sound every time we go into the studio. We’ve been encouraged to do that in particular by [producer] Rick Rubin in the past two albums. That brings a sense of excitement and surprise in terms of what the music is going to sound like.

After each of us works on our music, sometimes individually, we always get together and listen to everything, giving feedback and then deciding who has to go work on something. So we’re always collaborating. It’s a very open process, where anyone can bring any kind of song idea and then we focus on whichever we’re feeling the most.

What do you do when you’re not with the band? Any ongoing individual projects?Professionally, I like to focus on Linkin Park because I feel that even if I’m interested in a wide range of activities, I feel like I could find all those within the context of the band. I of course have time outside of the band, but most of it involves sitting on the couch and watching television [laughs]. I’ve been playing a lot of Scrabble. It’s a little presumptuous and haughty to admit, but I’ve beat the computer a dozen times. I don’t play [the video game] Angry Birds. I actually don’t play a lot of video games.

What’s your secret to performing live?I sometimes feel like I know what I’m doing. I think what’s nice is that after you’ve played on stage a lot, like every night, then there’s a certain kind of unconscious zone that happens, when you don’t have to think about it and it just happens. I think I play the best when I don’t have to think of what I’m doing.